The generic delimitation of Dryopteris adopted here follows the most recent molecular analysis, which discovered that Acrophorus, Acrorumohra, Diacalpe, Dryopsis, Nothoperanema, and Peranema were embedded within a paraphyletic Dryopteris and thus should all be merged into Dryopteris (Li Bing Zhang et al., BMC Evol. Biol. 12: 180. 2012). Most species of these genera share a short rhizome and catadromous arrangement of frond segments, unlike the sister genus of Dryopteris s.l., Arachniodes.